1. Field of the Invention
With reference to the classification of art as established in and by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the present invention is believed to be in the general Class entitled, "Foods and Beverages, Apparatus" (Class 99) and in the subclass entitled, "subdividing into plural products" (subclass 537) and the further subclass entitled, "slicing" (subclass 543).
2. Description of the Prior Art
The peeling and sectioning of edibles such as fruits and vegetables is a very old art as well as a necessity. Many patents have been directed toward providing assistance to the peeling and sectioning particularly of fruits. The present invention pertains to substantially an automated and automatic means and method of slicing and then sectioning fruits such as watermelon.
In the prior art as shown in various U.S. patents and considered at least partially pertinent are U.S. Pat. No. 2,014,593 to SERGENT of Sept. 17, 1935; U.S. Pat. No. 2,211,919 to WOOL of Aug. 20, 1940 which shows apparatus for dicing fruit. U.S. Pat. No. 2,847,311 to DOUMAK et al. of Aug. 12, 1959 shows a conveyor on which a treatment of a product occurs. U.S. Pat. No. 2,851,767 to HOOKER of Sept. 16, 1958 shows apparatus for hand manipulating a shaping apparatus for edible material, particularly watermelon. U.S. Pat. No. 2,968,567 to the same HOOKER of Jan. 17, 1960 shows cutting of a slice of melon into six like segments by hand manipulation. Also shown is apparatus for hand manipulation of slicing the melon. U.S. Pat. No. 2,916,968 to LEBOVITZ of Dec. 15, 1959 shows a knife grid for cutting fish simultaneously both both in a horizontal and vertical arrangement. U.S. Pat. No. 3,057,386 to MASSARO of Oct. 9, 1962 shows a potato cutter. U.S. Pat. No. 3,079,964 to OLDERSHAW of Mar. 5, 1963 shows slicing apparatus for frozen fish. U.S. Pat. No. 3,187,432 to CUMO of June 8, 1965 shows cheese slicing apparatus and U.S. Pat. No. 3,348,655 to PIERCE, Jr., et al. of Oct. 23, 1967 shows a conveyor for fixed size articles.
In these and other known apparatus many operations are personally observed and/or supervised. Many steps are done by hand or hand assist which is time consuming and slow. The present apparatus, to be hereinafter more fully described, employs an automatic operation for each step and automatic transfer equipment for the moving of the edibles from whole to a finished section. The present apparatus is intended to be high speed in operation and essentially free of attendant requirement.